Metropolitan Opera Archives

The first "Rigoletto" of the season on Jan. 3 was distinguished by the return of Lawrence Tibbett whose recent throat affliction caused the cancellation of Fall concert and opera appearances. The house was filled almost to capacity with the baritone's admirers who expressed their pleasure at his recovery.

Rigoletto remains one of the most taxing of all Verdi parts. Though Mr. Tibbett sang it with his familiar warmth and acted it with his customary vigor, it was to be noted that he seldom gave full power to the more dramatic utterances and seemed to be conserving his voice. This undoubtedly was sensible, though it is not easy to realize the power of arias like "Cortigiani" in half-voice. The beautiful duets with Miss Pons in the second and third acts were models of good tone and artistic phrasing: indeed the quieter measures were consistently effective.

Miss Pons and Mr. Kullman were attractive to the eye and contributed some particularly good singing to the quartet in the last act. Miss Pons's "Caro Nome" induced the customary applause in spite of a slight deviation from pitch on the final high E. Mr. Cordon, who replaced John Gurney as Monterone, has always brought something of distinction to this secondary role; on this occasion he made almost a stellar part of it. The others conformed to the usual routine. Perhaps Mr. Papi led his forces with an eye to covering the singers' shortcomings. The result was that he often drowned out what was probably their best singing. The old "Rigoletto" sets, although somewhat in need of retouching, are still notably artistic.?

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